Patent decision

BL number

O/445/22

Concerning rights in

GB1811353.0

Hearing Officer

Mr P Mason

Decision date

24 May 2022

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Beijing Didi Infinity Technology and Development Co Ltd

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to methods and systems for queuing transportation service requests, associated with an area, for an online ride hailing platform. In such a system, a passenger requests a transportation service (e.g. a ride) and the online ride hailing platform manages the dispatch of a service vehicle (e.g. a taxi, private car or the like) to fulfil the service request.

A request queue can be created, by a processor, in response to the number of transportation requests being larger than an activation threshold. To prevent too many queues existing simultaneously, the activation threshold for queue creation may be increased when the number of activated queues reaches a certain level. A request queue can also be deactivated when the number of transportation service requests is less than a deactivation threshold.

The Hearing Officer applied the Aerotel/Macrossan four step test, considered the five AT&T/CVON signposts and found that the identified contribution of the independent claims does not make a technical contribution and that the claims are excluded from patentability as a computer program as such and also excluded as a business method. The application was refused under section 18(3).

Full decisionO/445/22  404Kb